Where the people of St. Scholastica Parish in Aspinwall, PA meet for conversation about our parish life.

Why the name?

"Holy Conversation" does sound like an exceptionally pious name, even for a parish blog. And we can't guarantee that everything here will meet the high standard the name implies. But the phrase comes from the story of our patron saint, and we think it fits. Here's why.

St. Scholastica was a sixth-century abbess who, according to the Dialogues of Pope Gregory I, used to meet once a year with her brother, St. Benedict. On the last occasion they were together, they spent their time "satisfying each other's hunger for holy conversation about the spiritual life."

We hope that this blog can become a place where the members of our parish can find a taste of the companionship and conversation that Scholastica and Benedict enjoyed so much. Welcome!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Catholic Teaching and Labor Unions

After initial suspicions in the 19th
century, Pope Leo XIII wrote in support of unions in his 1891 encyclical On the Condition of Labor.In the United States, the Church saw
supporting unions as one practical way of helping the many Catholic immigrant
families who had members working in industrial jobs. Pittsburgh’s Msgr. Charles
Owen Rice was one of many “labor priests” of the 1930s and following decades.

As many Catholics have moved to the middle class or
professional status, some of our practical commitment to labor rights seems to
have waned. But the principles underlying the Church’s support of workers remain
and, if anything, the need for commitment to them seems to have increased.

Here is how Pope Benedict put it in his 2009
encyclical, Charity in Truth: “Through
the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations
experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the
interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic
utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. .
. . The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine, beginning
with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion
of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored
today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the
urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as
the local level.” (no. 25)

The words of
the U.S. bishops in their 1986 letter Economic
Justice for All have lost none of their urgency: “No one may deny the right
to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore, we firmly oppose
organized efforts, such as those regrettably now seen in this country, to break
existing unions and prevent workers from organizing.” (no. 104)

I have been surprised to learn that many Catholics
are unaware of this teaching.Are you?